The Coming Insurrection is a French political tract that hypothesizes the "imminent collapse of capitalist culture".[1] It was written by The Invisible Committee, an anonymous group of contributors and first published in 2007 by French company La Fabrique.

Contents

The book is divided into two parts. The first attempts a complete diagnosis of the totality of modern capitalist civilization, moving through what the Invisible Committee identify as the "seven circles" of alienation: "self, social relations, work, the economy, urbanity, the environment, and to close civilization". The latter part of the book begins to offer a prescription for revolutionary struggle based on the formation of communes, or affinity group-style units, in an underground network that will build its forces outside of mainstream politics, and attack in moments of crisis – political, social, environmental – to push towards anti-capitalist revolution. The insurrection envisioned by the Invisible Committee will revolve around "the local appropriation of power by the people, of the physical blocking of the economy and of the annihilation of police forces".

The book has created major interest in the anarchist movement and in particular the insurrectionary anarchist tendency, as well as among North American radical leftists in general. Bootleg editions of the work have been passed around extensively since before the Semiotext(e) edition. On the other hand many radical leftists have been severely critical of the book and the movement.

In September 2010, Coline Struyf from the National Theatre of Belgium adapted the book to theatre.[4]

Glenn Beck, host of The Glenn Beck Program, has at various times referred to the book as, "crazy" and "evil".[5] Beck has also urged his viewers to order the book online themselves, so as to better understand what he claimed were the thoughts of leftist radicals.[6]

In 2014, the Invisible Committee published To Our Friends as a sequel.